> But whooping cough, named for the high-pitched "whoop" a person makes when inhaling, has made a comeback, with an incidence rate up by a whopping 2,300 percent since 1976, the year when fear of the vaccine began to take hold and vaccination rates started to plummet. In 1976 there were only about 1,000 reported cases; in 2005, the most recent peak, there were nearly 27,000 reported cases (and likely over 1 million unreported cases), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. > At issue was the "whole-cell pertussis" element of the vaccine, since replaced in most countries,...

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A shake-up in immigration policy may lead to deportation proceedings being dropped for thousands of aliens who entered the United States illegally but are applying to stay in the country, officials said on Friday. They said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) seeks to end deportation proceedings against detained illegal immigrants who have applications pending to become legal U.S. residents, if agents determine they have no criminal history and do not present a security threat. The policy shift emerged from an internal memorandum ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton sent last week to the agency's principal legal...

As has been rumored for some time, the Obama administration has started a ‘backdoor amnesty’ and has begun to drop large numbers of deportation proceedings against illegal aliens. The new policy started quietly about a month ago in Houston. [continued at link]

MIAMI, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. immigration officials say they've dropped deportation efforts against foreign nationals who may be eligible for green cards under new guidelines.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has instructed its agency's legal office to stop deportation proceedings against tens of thousands of foreign nationals who are married or related to a U.S. citizen or a legal resident who has filed a petition for them, The Miami Herald reported Friday."Where there is an underlying application or petition and ICE determines ... that a non-detained individual appears eligible for relief from removal, [its attorneys] should promptly move to dismiss...

(snip) The tiny, reddish-brown parasites, which live on warm human blood, were once nearly extinct. But thanks to a growing resistance to pesticides, and an increasingly mobile human population, they’ve had a resurgence since the mid-1990s. For years, they’ve been enjoying city life, crawling out at night from all sorts of mattresses to feed. The difference now, exterminators said, is they’ve made sizable inroads into suburbia. (snip) In the past decade, most urban-dwelling bedbugs arrived on the backs of roaming college students or migrant workers from South and Central America.Once they settle and mate, their offspring will eventually set off...

Patrons eat at a taco stand, as the body of a man lies on the pavement, in Ciudad Obregon August 10, 2010. According to local media, the man died after suffering a fatal heart attack. Picture taken August 10, 2010. REUTERS/Francisco Gonzalez Bolon/Expreso

MINNEAPOLIS -- Police arrested five protesters outside the quarterly meeting of Major League baseball team owners in Minneapolis. They were among 100 people who gathered outside a downtown hotel Wednesday, trying to deliver petitions to commissioner Bud Selig to move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona because of that state's new law cracking down on illegal immigrants. They say an event that could pump $60 million into Arizona's economy belongs elsewhere.

One of about every 12 babies born in the United States in 2008 was the offspring of unauthorized immigrants, a Pew Hispanic Center study released Wednesday concluded. According to the study, an estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in this country that year had parents who were in the United States without legal documentation. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that those children automatically become U.S. citizens, but some members of Congress are pushing to change that provision. That effort -- rooted in the debate over illegal immigration, particularly of people from Mexico -- has created some...

Should Lawmakers Consider a Birthright Citizenship Change to the Constitution? Yes, denying kids automatic citizenship would curb illegal immigration. No, this is not the issue that warrants a change to the U.S. Constitution. Maybe, because birthplace alone should not make the child of an illegal a U.S. citizen. Other (leave a comment)

Four alleged members of the drug trafficking organization Los Zetas are dead following a shootout with authorities near San Fernando. The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) reported that Marines out on patrol came under fire around 6 p.m. Thursday. The shootout reportedly four alleged members of the Zetas dead. SEMAR officials reported seizing: • One rocket launcher • Nine assault rifles • Two handguns • Three fragmentation grenades • 2,600 ammunition cartridges • 10 bulletproof vests • 500 grams of cocaine • 223,000 pesos in cash • Three vehicles Names of the those killed in the battle were not released but the...

California is home to 26 percent of an estimated 2.1 million young illegal immigrants who could earn legal status with the proposed federal DREAM Act, according to a new study by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The study released this month by the nonpartisan research center uses data from the 2006 and 2008 federal Current Population Survey, along with 2000 Census information to estimate the size of this population of children and young adults. California is home to by far the greatest number - 553,000 - of potential beneficiaries of the proposal, the study found. The study puts...

Reporting from Mexico City — In elections marred by violence, intimidation and the growing influence of drug traffickers, Mexicans chose governors or other local officials in 14 states Sunday. Preliminary results Monday showed the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) winning most governorships but failing to alter its overall hold on power. President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party, in alliance with leftist parties, stunned the PRI by winning in two of its historic bastions, Oaxaca and Puebla, according to preliminary results. The PRI, which dominated Mexico for 70 years until 2000, had hoped a strong showing would bolster its campaign to...

Australia’s new prime minister is expected to unveil a tough new policy on immigration in a crack down on the rising number of illegal asylum seekers. Julia Gillard has called for an open debate on the problem which has seen ‘boatloads of people’ arriving in the country and crammed into an offshore detention centre. Miss Gillard will meet her Cabinet today to address the influx. The Opposition blames the Labor party for the rise in illegal immigration that occurred under Miss Gillard’s predecessor, Kevin Rudd, who loosened tough regulations in 2008. Australia has long been a destination for asylum seekers,...

Tombstone, AZ (KOLD) - The Cochise County Militia is out patrolling the Southern Arizona desert this holiday weekend. "Some people say the border is just too big, there's nothing we can do about it. That's wrong, that's crazy, we have to do something about it," Tom Fellows said. Doing something is why these everyday citizens are standing in the desert this Fourth of July weekend. Fellows explained, "I believe border security has been overlooked for too long."

According to reliable sources at the U.S. Border Patrol, a new threat has been issued by the Mexican drug cartels to kill an agent along the southern border sometime over the 4th of July weekend. The killing would be in retaliation for the shooting of an alleged teenage human smuggler at the Texas border in June. The Border Patrol agent, who was being attacked with numerous rocks, shot at his attackers in self-defense and has been taken off front-line duty; however the Border Patrol agency is standing by the well-revered agent. The teen that was killed had suspected ties to...

IF IT’S BROKE: In an immigration address short on details, President Obama said he wouldn’t support “blanket amnesty” for undocumented workers but also called a deportation of all illegal residents unrealistic. “We can create a pathway to legal status that is fair, reflective of our values and works,” he said at American University. “Stopping illegal immigration must go hand in hand with reforming our creaky system of legal immigration.” Obama said the “majority of Democrats” are ready to vote on changes to the country’s immigration system, but that more Republicans are needed to support legislation. “The question now is whether...

President Barack Obama on Thursday blamed immigration policy gridlock on "political posturing and special interest wrangling." In a speech Thursday, Obama took Republicans to task, in particular 11 GOP senators who supported recent efforts to improve the immigration system. He did not name any in particular, but told his largely supportive audience at American University that those lawmakers had succumbed to the "pressures of partisanship and election-year politics."

"Being an American is not a matter of blood or birth, it's a matter of faith," President Obama declared at a speech he gave on immigration. Obama also blamed "resentment" to new immigrants to poor economic conditions. "Now, we can't forget that this process of immigration and eventual inclusion has often been painful. Each new wave of immigrants has generated fear and resentment towards newcomers, particularly in times of economic upheaval," Obama said.

President Obama is reviving the thorny issue of immigration this week. He sent administration officials to Arizona on Monday to advertise his efforts on border security, while he is encouraging supporters of an immigration overhaul to focus their ire on Republicans as the cause for the legislation’s stall in Congress. Taking a break from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Obama summoned Latino leaders and immigrant advocates on short notice for a 45–minute White House meeting on Monday, and he met Tuesday with members of the House Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Also Tuesday, the White House announced that...

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly is warning that if President Barack Obama ever bypasses Congress and uses his pardon power to make millions of illegal aliens citizens, he could face serious calls for his impeachment. “If President Obama were to sign an executive order giving illegal aliens amnesty, his career would be over and an impeachment movement would explode,” O'Reilly said Friday night on his “Talking Points” segment during his top-rated Fox show. [....] Fox News, however, reported this week: “The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status...

DENVER — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano blamed a "bitterly divided Congress" for failing to create an immigration bill but assured Hispanic political leaders on Thursday that the president remains committed to overhauling the nation's immigration laws. "Make no mistake about it. President Obama and the administration are committed to comprehensive immigration reform," Napolitano said to cheers and applause of participants at the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials..."But I think we can all recognize, and you as elected officials can recognize particularly, that some reform takes time." Napolitano highlighted President Barack Obama's effort...

Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough is an extremely contagious infection which has now been considered an epidemic in California. With a rising number of infections, whooping cough is well on the way to break the 50 year old record which was set in 1958. The last outbreak was five years ago, and claimed 8 lives. Already this year, five infants have died from whooping cough, according to California public health officials. This infection has come roaring back. The number of cases that are being investigated as or considered whooping cough is already at an unusual 1,510. Officials fear the...

The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status on a mass basis to illegal immigrants, a former Bush administration official who spoke with at least three people involved in those talks told FoxNews.com

Source: Administration Weighs Bypassing Congress to Let Illegal Immigrants Stay The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status on a mass basis to illegal immigrants, a former Bush administration official who spoke with at least three people involved in those talks told FoxNews.com. The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status on a mass basis to illegal immigrants, a former Bush administration official who spoke with at least three people involved in those talks...

Whooping cough is now an epidemic in California, and is on pace to break a 50-year record for infections and deaths for the year. As of June 15, California had 910 recorded cases of the highly contagious disease, and five babies -- all under 3 months of age -- have died from the disease this year. This year's surge in whooping cough cases, which is also known as pertussis, is a fourfold increase from the same period last year, when 219 cases were recorded. At least 600 additional cases of pertussis are currently under investigation by local health departments. Health...

“Every night we’re getting beaten like a pinata at a birthday party by drug, alien smugglers," a second federal agent told Fox News by e-mail. "The danger is out there, with all the weapons being found coming northbound…. someone needs to know about this!” The agents blame part of their plight on new policies from Washington, claiming it has put a majority of the U.S. agents on the border itself. One agent compared it to a short-yardage defense in football, explaining that once the smugglers and drug-runners break through the front line, they're home free.

America is losing the battle along the border with MexicoÂ—apparently without a fight. As proof, a swatch of Arizona 80 miles wide that runs from the Mexican border about three counties deep into the state (encompassing about 3,500 acres) has been ceded to Mexicans. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told Fox News that armed paramilitary elements control a portion of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and other parts of Arizona. But rather than try and reclaim it, signs have been posted marking the area as off limits to Americans. It was closed in October 2006, due to human safety...

For Leslie Cocche, the morning of March 12 began like any other school day. She stood at the Fort Lauderdale Tri-Rail station listening to music through her ear buds while awaiting the train to Miami, where she attends Miami Dade College. Suddenly, a U.S. Border Patrol agent began questioning her, eventually discovering that the 18-year-old Peruvian was in the country illegally. Cocche was arrested, handcuffed and handed over for deportation proceedings. Cocche's detention, along with many other recent arrests of undocumented immigrants in South Florida and across the country, have raised questions about whether the U.S. Department of Homeland Security...

Los Angeles authorites have released raw video of a mob attacking and setting fire to a taxicab after the Los Angeles Lakers victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night. Officials hope the public can identify some of the people seen on the video. The taxicab incident was one of the most serious that occurred during the rampage. Violence erupted within 30 minutes of the game's end as rowdy fans poured out of area bars and, shortly after, the 19,000 ticket-holders inside Staples began to emerge. Phalanxes of LAPD officers successfully funneled the tightly packed revelers away from the venue,...

PHOENIX -- Emboldened by passage of the nation's toughest law against illegal immigration, the Arizona politician who sponsored the measure now wants to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in this country to undocumented parents. Legal scholars laugh out loud at Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce's proposal and warn that it would be blatantly unconstitutional, since the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. But Pearce brushes aside such concerns. And given the charged political atmosphere in Arizona, and public anger over what many regard as a failure by the federal government to secure the border, some...

With 10% unemployment, one would think that the government would consider lowering the number of green cards issued to foreign workers until Americans were back on their feet. Amazingly, recently released data from the Department of Homeland Security shows that we have actually increased immigration. Far from reflecting supply and demand, our legal immigration numbers continue to climb no matter the state of the national economy. The latest figures come from fiscal year 2009. The fiscal year began on October 1, 2008, which is when our economic collapse began and continued through September of 2009. Over five million Americans lost...

In the interests of fairness, let's listen to the point of view of a presumed opponent of Arizona's SB1070. Here an eloquent Reconquistador shares the finer points of his ideology with Tea Party patriots in Monterey County, California. As you might expect, the language is not suitable for children, work, or civilized company.

YAKIMA, Wash. -- In 2005, gang members gunned down a reputed drug dealer and his 3-year-old daughter in Yakima. On May 30 this year, a brazen daylight shooting killed an 18-year-old Yakima man in a gang-related dispute. Both times, Yakima police Chief Sam Granato said the homicides were perfect examples of why the federal government should lead a Yakima-based Safe Streets task force dedicated to combating what he describes as the growing complexity of Yakima's gangs. "I think we are going to be dealing with a lot more sophisticated gang members from here on out," Granato said. It's looks like...

CASA GRANDE, AZ - Two men shot earlier this week could be the result of the ongoing battle between Mexican drug cartels now spilling over deep into Arizona, officials say. Pinal County investigators say an area known as the smuggling corridor now stretches from Mexico's border to metro Phoenix. The area , once an area for family hiking and off road vehicles has government signs warning residents of the drug and human smugglers. Night vision cameras have photographed military armed cartel members delivering drugs to vehicles along Highway 8. "We are three counties deep. How is it that you see...

Early in the 90’s, we saw a militarization of this area...and an enormous jump in the number of Border Patrol agents and their various apparatuses,” Velarde said. “In the case of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, he was killed point blank by a Border Patrol agent. It’s a very ... violent space, as we see the mix of people” and the “state repression that exists there in all its forms.” Velarde compared the U.S.-Mexico border to occupied Palestine. He said: “The similarities are so obvious, especially to somebody who lives on the border. The fact that they can justify deadly force...

Mexican and U.S. authorities were “secretly scrambling” last month to thwart an alleged plot by a Mexican drug cartel to blow up a Texas dam and unleash billions of gallons of water along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Houston Chronicle reported. Mexico's Zeta cartel planned the attack to get back at its rival, the Gulf cartel, which controls smuggling routes from the Falcon Dam to the Gulf of Mexico, Sigifredo Gonzalez, sheriff of Texas' Zapata County, told the Chronicle.

MILWAUKEE -- Immigration agents and Milwaukee police said they arrested 15 illegal immigrant gang members on Wednesday and Thursday. The arrests were part of an initiative by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) National Gang Unit called "Operation Community Shield." All but one of the people arrested are foreign-born members and associates of the following street gangs: Brown Pride, Latin Kings, Mexican Posse and C-14, ICE said. Of the 15 men arrested, all are Mexican nationals except for one individual from the former Yugoslavia, according to ICE. Twelve people are currently in ICE custody on administrative immigration charges pending...

Electrocution, gang rape, sodomy, starvation, pistol whipping, amputation and other atrocities are all daily occurrences for those who thought they had paid the full fee needed to get into America,. This and more is all going on right next door to many unsuspecting citizens living in the suburbs. When Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, and other politicians decided to force banks into giving loans to people who could not afford them so they could purchase homes, the housing was bound to eventually come tumbling down. Well today, millions of foreclosed homes sit empty in suburbs all across America. Most have...

TUCSON - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirm with News4, a Pakistani citizen crossed the border illegally from Mexico into Arizona on May 20th. ICE says the man was apprehended by Border Patrol on the Tohono O'odham reservation and turned over to ICE.

Mexican and U.S. authorities were "secretly scrambling" last month to thwart a Mexican drug cartel's plot to blow up a Texas dam that would have flooded an area with about 4 million inhabitants, according to the Houston Chronicle's Dane Schiller and James Pinkerton. Law enforcement officials were reportedly tipped off to a plot when they found one of the handbills that the drug cartel Los Zetas was distributing on the Mexican side of the river, warning residents to clear out ahead of the explosion. Authorities found "small amounts of dynamite near the dam," the Chronicle said. Los Zetas wanted to...

BENSON - The Cochise County Sheriff's Department is investigating a deadly accident north of Benson involving suspected illegal immigrants. The Willcox Police Department has confirmed to News 4 that a pregnant woman has died at the scene of the accident which happened near Cascabel Road and Three Links Road. Woman killed in rollover accident (click image for full-size) They also tell News 4 that another pregnant woman is among the injured. Police say nine others are also injured. Four of those hurt had only minor injuries.

A 15-year-old Liberian refugee who pleaded guilty to participating in the gang rape of an 8-year-old girl was sentenced to probation. Maricopa County Juvenile Court Judge Samuel Thumma Wednesday also sent the boy to a secure treatment center for at least a year for last summer's assault in Phoenix. He was originally charged as an adult but later sent to juvenile court where he pleaded guilty to sexual assault, kidnapping, three counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of attempted sexual conduct with a minor. Unless a judge rules otherwise, he will remain on probation until he...

(by Chuck wolk)We have all read the reports about the Somali pirates taking merchant ships and oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden and now even Thai fishermen in the Indian Ocean to hold for ransom. Well it would seem that such pirate activity is something that could only happen in lawless places like Somalia. However, right here in America many citizens of this country are now under assault from pirates who are operating with virtual impunity as they steal cash and electronics from Americans just wanting to fish on Falcon Lake between the American and Mexican border. All...

Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch sent us the latest revelations about something we predicted last year in an NER article, “Foot Soldiers of Islam": FBI and local counter terrorism authorities need to step up monitoring of the radical Somali émigré communities In the US. This is a vital necessity to prevent swarming attack threats from returning American Somali Al Shabaab fighters who evade capture by US immigration and counter terrorism authorities. According to an article in WorldNet Daily, the FBI has launched such an effort beginning with the Washington, DC metro area. We need a comprehensive counter terrorism strategy....

There is one gigantic obstacle that stands before America and our immigration crisis. And, quite frankly, it is in my estimation an insurmountable roadblock that will inhibit any resolution that enforces current immigration law, especially as it pertains to illegal immigrants. That barrier is not a people, policy or protocol. It is our president. I seriously doubt that our current commander in chief can lead our nation out of this immigration mess because of a single fundamental and philosophical difference he has with most Americans, previous administrations and even our founders. President Obama declared it in the Rose Garden two...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima police Chief Sam Granato said the victim of Sunday’s homicide was brutally "executed" after being surrounded by rival gang members in front of his home. Police officers rushed to the scene about 4:45 p.m. after 18-year-old Daniel Rivera was shot multiple times in the 700 block of Pleasant Avenue, northeast of Yakima Valley Community College near Tieton Drive. "He was begging for his life and they executed him," Granato said. Asked how many times Rivera was shot, the chief said "a lot. We found 14 shell casings at the scene." Rivera’s death was the 14th homicide...

Federal authorities have issued a terror alert to Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a man believed to have recently crossed, or to be planning on crossing, into the US from the Mexican border. The man, Mohamed Ali, is a suspected member of the Somali-based terror group al Shabaab. The alert follows a recently unsealed indictment in a Texas federal court which claims that a Somali immigrant, Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, has been operating a human smuggling ring that has facilitated the eventual crossing of hundreds of Somali immigrants into the US via Brazil to Mexico. From Fox News:...